Mein Bräubuch

Some keep journals of love and others of life,

with memoirs of joy and sagas of strife.   

Those fond of such jargon should steer clear of here,

because I am writing this journal all about beer!

Altbeer or simply "Alt" is a specialty of Dusseldorf, and is typically served in a small thin glass. Holding true to the Rheinheitsgebot, it is brewed only with water, hops, malt, and yeast. It can have a light hoppy or malty flavor depending on the brewery. 

My Favorite Alt

Hopfen und Malz Gott erhalt's (May God sustian Hops and Malt)

Not beer but... its a Dusseldorf specialty

Koelsch is a specialty of Koeln, and is the rival beer to Alt. It is served in a small thin glass similar to that of an Alt. It has a light hoppy flavor.

I found an Alt brewery that our tutors didn't know about!

Ehringsdorfer and Koestritzer are both specialties of Weimar (which I sampled on my first night in Weimar)

New method for rating beers: Two thumbs up - Excellent

                                      One thumb up - Good

                             Flat hand - meh

                                            One thumb down - subpar

                                          Two thumbs down - Bad

The Koestrizer Pilsner... not too bad, but the schwarz was much better!

Kellerbier was relatively cheap and was my go to beer in Weimar

Organic beer...not so good

 Pilsner from the Brauerei an der Thomaskirche in Leipzig - Good Stuff!

This beer was 95% porter and 5% cherry juice...It was actually very tasty but super sweet and therefore is receiving two thumbs up as a desert beer.

Tschech beer! (in Erfurt)

THE BEST BEER I HAD IN GERMANY!!

This is probably the best beer that I have had on the trip so far. It is called a Panther Weisse, and is an extra dark weiss (wheat beer). It was just an all around good beer, extremely smooth, and just a hint of banana. I had it at a small beer garden in Ingolstadt, and Charlotte seemed to like it too, since she kept having to "taste" it...

 Nordbraeu - Locally brewed in Ingolstdat

My first Radler (a mix of lemon-lime soda and a lager...tastes kind of like Bud Light Lime -Pretty refreshing on a hot day)

 Fussball Beer top! Go Deutschland!!

 Altenburger was rated the number 1 beer for 2012, and it is pretty good, but there was nothing particularly special about it.

Apfelwein (not beer) it really isn't all that bad once you get over the taste of rotten apples...

Good Idea!

Organic Beer...with apple juice... surprisingly not to bad!

I was very scared that this beer was going to taste like pine trees

BUDWEISER! (but not really)

 We were celebrating the 4th of July, and this was the closest thing that I could find to american beer, and its from Czechoslovakia... Kinda weird celebrating an American holiday in Germany drinking Czech beer. Oh and I had some watermelon too... from Spain. 

First bad beer in a while

Franzikaner Royal. This beer cost me 1.5 Euro, that's about twice what a good beer cost... luckily I was not dissapointed! Very good stuff!

My first Mass!

A hefe-weissbier, a Salvator, and a Paulaner Lager all perfect!

Paulaner just makes good beer

After brewing beer the kegs need to be cleaned, but there is a high concentration of Carbon Dioxide in the keg due to the fermentation. So, in the old days a daschund use to be pushed through the small door on the front of the keg, and if he passed out the people new the CO2 concentration was still too high... Don't worry the dog was ok after they pulled him out. If the dog didnt pass out they knew they could go in and clean the keg.

Mass at the Hoffbraeuhaus!

The Original and the Schwarz

Berliner Beer